They say sex and success sell, so why not put an attractive, successful race car driver on a watch advertisement where viewers will associate the model's hotness and success with their potential hotness and success. If they buy this particular watch--the carrera steel and 18k gold automatic chronograph TAGHeuer watch--they can be just as hot and successful as Jeff Gordon is. The ad is trying to convince men to buy this particular watch by appealing to the male ego. Through building an emotional connection between ownership of the watch and male attractiveness and success, the advertiser is trying to lure his or her audience into buying the product. This approach is effective, and just in case appealing to emotion is not completely effective, the ad imposes the authority of the TAGheuer company by citing that the company is a Swiss company which began in the 1800s.

This ad's audience is an educated, and definitely male, audience. I am assuming the intended audience is at least somewhat educated because this advertisement is found in The New York Times, a paper that many educated males read. I also assume the audience is wealthy because this watch is expensive and would appeal to people who have money, and if they are not wealthy yet, they are aspiring to be wealthy which could breed the desire to own this watch--to look like they were wealthy, hot, and successful.

The audience of this ad is led to think something like, "If I buy this watch, I can be attractive and successful just like Jeff Gordon." The approach in this advertisement is completely illogical; however, it draws on the viewer's emotions. And where the emotional pull doesn't work, the authoritative statement on the ad will hopefully take over--of course the TAGHeuer watch is amazing; it is Swiss made and has a historical background of at least a hundred years; it must be a quality watch, right? With all of that information to back up the company's credibility, it is only logical that this watch is amazing--especially since it is made out of carrera steel and 18k gold. It's has to be a quality product . . .